The Most West Texas Meal Ever

Today I'm thrilled to introduce a guest post from Josh, my second older brother (you get to figure out what that means). There are two recipes below, with results at the end of the post. You may remember Josh from my trip to visit him in New Zealand, from his blog To Insanity and Beyond, or from actually knowing him in real life. Or you may have absolutely no idea who this redheaded dude is. Either way, you're in for a treat today, because not only is he good at playing army men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with you when you're little, but he's also an excellent writer.

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At various points in my life, I’ve held the following jobs:

• Working at a chicken factory.
• Hauling furniture.
• Doing the grunt work that no one else wanted on a construction site.
• Scraping up bird poop.
• Running a hostel…which required scraping up human poop.
• Taking inventory in various warehouses.
• Unpaid youth minister at a church that never realized I possessed actual skills.
• Painting houses…in the Texas summer.
• Cashier at a fish and chips shop in an Aboriginal war zone.

Among the very worst of my occupational episodes, though, was that phase I spent working part time as a landscaper.  I hate mowing lawns.  It’s hot, it’s boring, it’s loud, and next week you have to do the exact same thing again because the grass is too stupid to stay down.  Sometimes we’d get a specialty assignment, like laying sod or trimming a tree.  This would take several hours, and of course we still had to get all the regular mowing accounts in too.  I hated that job so much.  I hit rock bottom the day I was assigned to trim a yucca plant.  If you’ve never had the pleasure, you’ll probably die happy, but let me explain what you’ve missed out on.  Imagine a six foot bouquet of spears, controlled by a subtle but intelligent mind that is sadistic and predatory.  Yucca plants bathe in the blood of living things, draining the souls of their victims along with their life force.  They don’t do this for their own sustenance, like a Venus fly trap.  No, they do it because they’re jerks.  Yucca plants are hostile, and they refuse to negotiate.

So when Karissa suggested we include yucca in our gourmet feast, I couldn’t have been happier.  (That is, once a quick Google search confirmed people actually eat yucca and she wasn’t just trolling me.)   This would be my revenge.  This would right an ancient wrong, rebalancing the scales of justice in favor of the downtrodden.  Yucca did me dirty; now, yucca would be my lunch.

The yucca would just be a side dish, though.  Initially, Karissa wanted to make prickly pear barbecue sauce, which sounded rad to me.  Of course, what good is barbecue sauce without meat to go under it?  Most people, when faced with this scenario, would content themselves with a pork roast.  Not us.  Karissa said, “I have some wild boar in the freezer.”  Yes.  Yes.

So our feast would be wild boar with prickly pear barbecue sauce and a side of yucca.  This is also known as the most west Texas meal ever.

Wild Boar with Prickly Pear Tequila Barbecue Sauce

Wild Boar Directions:

• Eat a pineapple for breakfast.
• Vertically slice up 1 red onion and spread it around the bottom of the crockpot.
• If you have a kitchen slave or a butler, have them gently and methodically massage salt and pepper deep into the boar meat.  Lacking either, simply salt and pepper the surface of the meat, then place it in a skillet on high heat to get a good sear on all sides. 
• Place the wild boar meat inside the crockpot on top of the onion layer.  Then add 1 whole red onion (peeled) to let it bask in the glorious essence of the wild boar.  If you are cooking the boar’s head, place the onion inside the boar’s mouth.
• Add 1 cup of hot water.
• Lay the entire pineapple core from breakfast lengthwise inside the crockpot against the boar meat.  Scatter additional pineapple fragments around the meat surface.  Cook on high for four hours.

Pro tips:

• If pressed for time, you may cut the meat into two or three chunks so as to expedite the cooking process.  As an added bonus, this creates ideal cavities for the pineapple core and fragments.
• Don’t be a n00b – coat the inside of the crockpot with canola oil so your butler won’t have to spend an hour cleaning it.  He needs to be answering the door.

Sauce Ingredients:
3 medium red onions (two of these are already cooking in the crock pot with the boar)
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1-1/2 cups prickly pear juice
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
Scant 1/2 tsp. ground coriander (or 1/2 tsp. coriander seeds, ground)
Scant 1-1/2 tsp. ground cumin (or 1-1/2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground)
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 jalapeno chilies, minced, ribs and seeds removed
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. lime zest*
1/2 cup white Worcestershire sauce**
1/2 cup tequila
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. lime juice***
2 tsp. kosher salt

*For the n00bs, that’s when you shave off the green stuff from the lime peel but not the white stuff.  It’s a pretty thin layer, so don’t go nuts.
**We didn’t have white Worcestershire sauce, because West Texas, so we substituted with the following: 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. white wine, 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar, and 1/4 tsp. sugar.
***I juiced the lime I used for the zest and it came out to exactly 2 Tbsp.  Boo yah!

Sauce Directions:

• Remove onions from crockpot, both whole and sliced, discarding any charred bits. Place in blender with prickly pear juice and blend at high speed until completely smooth.
• Mince remaining red onion.  Pro tip: Light a candle and keep it near the chopping station.  It’s the sulfur in the onion that irritates your eyes, and the open flame burns the sulfur away.  Your butler will thank you; your kitchen slave won’t, as they have not been granted permission to speak.
• Heat 1 Tbsp. of butter in a saucepan or large skillet over medium heat.  Sauté minced onions until lightly caramelized (about 5 minutes).  Add coriander, cumin, pepper flakes, jalapeno, garlic, and lime zest.  Cook until fragrant.  Pro tip: The recipe recommends “cooking until fragrant” for two minutes, but we say a minute should do.  Garlic burns easily, and you don’t want to burn your garlic.  That would be sad.
• Add Worcestershire, tequila, cider vinegar, and lime juice.  Cook over medium-high heat until volume is reduced by half.
• Stir in the onion/prickly pear blend and salt, bringing to a simmer.
• Remove from heat and swirl in the remaining butter.

These are yucca roots

Yuca con Mojo (Yucca with Garlic Sauce)

Ingredients:
4 yucca roots (we did 2 yuccas and ended up with twice as much sauce as we needed.)
1 tsp. salt
Juice from 1 lime
6 garlic cloves, mashed
1 tsp. salt, doesn’t have to be kosher.  Anarchy!
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup olive oil
1 chopped red onion

Directions:

• Peel and cube yucca.  Cubes must be the exact size of gaming dice, complete with rounded edges and dots etched into each face.  Otherwise you fail at dinner.  And life.  All your loved ones will abandon you.  You will be Gollum.
• Be sure to remove woody fibers that may be running down the middle of the yucca.
• Place yucca in saucepan and cover in water.  Add salt and lime juice, then bring to a boil.
• Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until tender (approximately 30 minutes).
• Drain and keep warm.
• Fire your butler; he’s doing a terrible job.
• Mash garlic.  Add garlic, lemon juice, and onions, and oil in the same pan you used for boiling.  Because you no longer have a butler to wash extraneous pans.  
• Heat until bubbling, then add the yucca to the pan, sautéing over medium heat until barely brown – but not CRISP!  (Note: the recipe was very adamant about this.  The all-caps crisp came straight from off the recipe page.  If the yucca gets crispy, I can only assume the apocalypse is upon us.)  

Results

Expectations were astronomical.  Could the reality of this meal live up to the hype?  In a word, yes.

For those of you who grew up in the jungle, yucca reminded us both of taro, a tuber that serves as a staple in the Papua New Guinean diet.  (If you didn’t grow up in the jungle, I’m not going to clarify that; you just get to feel left out.  Look, just cook up some yucca and try it for yourself.)  The sauce was a unique blend of flavors unlike anything I’ve tasted before – and it packed a late kick.  We both agreed that next time we might cut back on the pepper flakes and/or jalapeno to make it a bit less spicy.  It wasn’t too spicy to be enjoyable though; not by a long shot.  We’re just white.  And the wild boar was wild boar.  Enough said.

Most importantly, I established my dominance over the yucca.  I remain at the top of the food chain, with the yucca holding company with the likes of chicken and sushi.  Actually, sushi is higher than yucca.  Sushi eats yucca.  It’s science.

Here’s a picture of Karissa’s cat.  I think that’s how we do it on her blog.

LATER EDIT: Karissa fried up some leftover yucca a couple days later, which left it a little crispy on one or two sides.  She declared it better this way.  Pro tip: Never believe the recipe.

Recipe credit: This recipe served as the guide for the boar and sauce, and this one for the yuca/yucca.

Prickly Pear Lemonade (or Limeade)

There are few beverages that feel as summery as lemonade. So in honor of the weather warming up (thank you, Texas, for the gloriously cool May!) and because there’s still a whole lot of prickly pear juice in my freezer (oops, didn’t mean to hoard it so stingily) I bring you prickly pear lemonade.

If you aren’t into harvesting prickly pear fruit, just use some other fruit juice. Maybe some peach nectar or pureed/mashed blackberries?

And for the record, I use the bottled Real Lemon and Real Lime juices. Because really, who has time—and wrist strength—to juice that many lemons?

Prickly Pear Lemonade (or Limeade)
Yield: 1/2 gallon

Ingredients
3/4 to 1 cup sugar
1 cup prickly pear juice
3/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup lime juice
Water and ice

Directions
In a glass measuring cup, combine sugar with some water. Microwave for about a minute, so the water gets warm enough to dissolve the sugar. Then pour sugar water into a half-gallon pitcher or mason jar, along with the prickly pear juice, lemon juice, and lime juice. Fill the pitcher the rest of the way with ice and cold water.

To make limeade: Simply switch the lemon and lime juice measurements. I like the limeade slightly better with 3/4 cup sugar and the lemonade slightly better with 1 cup sugar.

Charred Corn and Poblano Quinoa Salad

I don't know about you, but I love grain salads. They tend to be filling, nicely balanced, and tasty meals, all contained in one bowl. And they usually keep well for leftovers and pack well for taking lunch to the office, so they're a great option if you're a one- or two-person household.

This salad has all the traits I love in a grain salad. You start with quinoa, and add in some roasted corn and poblano for sweetness and a bit of heat. Then toss in some cilantro for freshness and a pop of green, a brightly spiced dressing to coat everything in its tasty goodness, and finish off with a sprinkling of salty feta and cubes of creamy avocado.

Also, this is what charred poblano skin looks like if you get up close and personal with it.

Charred Corn and Poblano Quinoa Salad
Adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod
Yield: 6-8 servings as a side, or 3-4 servings as a main

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
1 poblano pepper
2 cups frozen corn
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup feta or cotija cheese
2 avocados, chopped

Dressing
1/4 cup olive oil (replace 1 Tbsp. with water for a lower-fat option)
Juice from two limes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp. finely chopped cilantro
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1/4 tsp. ground coriander (optional)
Salt and pepper

Directions
Cook quinoa according to package directions, except use only 1-1/2 cups water and add a pinch of salt. When it's cooked, remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and allow to cool.

Roast the poblano pepper: If you have a gas stove, turn a burner on high. Using metal tongs, hold the pepper over the open flame, turning and moving pretty often, until the skin is evenly charred. If you don't have a gas stove, roast it on a grill or in the oven. Place poblano in a paper or plastic bag and seal. Let it steam for 10 minutes to loosen the skin. Then remove to a cutting board and use a knife to scrape off the charred skin. Then cut open the poblano and remove the seeds (or leave them in if you want your salad to be spicy). Chop the poblano. Set aside to cool.

Roast the corn: Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the corn (straight from the freezer is just fine), and spread the kernels out in the skillet. Now, let them cook for a few minutes without touching them so a good char can develop. Then give them a good stir, and let them cook for a few more minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a large bowl. (Alternatively, if you don't feel like mincing the garlic and 1 Tbsp. cilantro, give all the dressing ingredients a whir in a small blender or food processor.) To the bowl, add the cooled quinoa, poblano, and corn; toss. Add the 1/3 cup chopped cilantro, feta, and avocados, and toss again. Taste, and add salt and pepper as needed. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Notes

• If you're planning to save this for later, hold off on the avocado until you're ready to serve.
• If you have a grill, roast the poblano and corn on that! Use two ears of corn instead of two cups frozen kernels.
• I've made this a couple times, and one time got lazy and left the cilantro out of the dressing, but it was noticeably better when I didn't cut that corner. I've also eaten it both with and without the avocado, and while it's definitely better with, it's also good without.
• I almost added cherry or grape tomatoes to this salad but am really glad I didn't. The flavors are so well-balanced, I think the tomatoes could have easily taken over.
  

Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Roasted Broccoli

Well, I posted the tomatillo salsa recipe that day after Cinco de Mayo, and I'm posting a grilled cheese recipe after National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Month (April) is over. This, my friends, is one of the reasons I'm not a professional food blogger. However, I maintain that fancy pants grilled cheese sandwiches are good at any time of the year.

What you'll find below is not exactly a recipe. Rather, it's a list of ingredients and some directions on a good method. But when I made this sandwich (twice!) I didn't measure a thing. If you have leftover roasted broccoli, use it as a side dish for another meal--it's great on its own! The original recipe called for onion and red bell pepper to be roasted with the broccoli, and that sounds good, but the sandwiches didn't taste at all like they were missing anything by not having roasted onion and pepper.

Grilled Cheese with Balsamic Roasted Broccoli
Adapted from Cookie and Kate
Yield: 1 serving 

Ingredients
Fresh broccoli florets
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper
2 slices sourdough bread
Dijon mustard
1-3 kinds of cheese, shredded (I used cheddar, gouda, and parmesan)

Directions
Preheat oven to 450. Line a baking sheet with foil. Cut broccoli florets into small bite-sized pieces; toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and toss again. Spread broccoli out on the baking sheet. Roast for about 20 minutes, stirring halfway through, until broccoli is darkened and roasty.

Get two slices of sourdough bread, and stack them like a sandwich. Spray/brush olive oil on the outsides of the bread sandwich. Then place the slices of bread oil-side-down. Spread a thin layer of Dijon mustard on one slice of bread. Grate one or two kinds of cheese, and sprinkle evenly on both slices of bread. I did cheddar on one slice and gouda on the other.

Heat a skillet over medium to medium-low heat. Using a spatula, carefully transfer each slice of bread into the skillet. Cover and cook on medium-low until cheese is melted. Check the bottoms of the bread; if they're not yet toasted, raise heat to medium and continue cooking (uncovered) until bread is toasted. Remove both slices of bread to a cutting board.

Layer some broccoli on top of one of the sandwich halves. Be generous with the broccoli. If desired, sprinkle a little more cheese in with the broccoli to help it stick together. I used parmesan. Place the other sandwich half on top and smoosh it slightly. Using a serrated knife, carefully cut the sandwich in half. Transfer to a plate to serve.

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa

Remember when it was a goal of mine to make something with fresh tomatillos? Wait, you mean you don't remember my food goals as well as I do? Well, it finally happened!

This tomatillo salsa tastes bright and fresh, and the recipe is quick, simple, and summery. It has just a few ingredients to whir up in the food processor, and my friends absolutely loved it. In fact, that's why there is so little salsa in these pictures--I made it, took it to a shower, we ate most of it, and then I photographed it the next day.

It seemed odd to me that the recipe didn't call for any lime or lemon, but I'm glad I trusted the recipe. The fresh tomatillos add plenty of brightness to the salsa--so much so, that my friends almost didn't believe that there was no lime juice in it. Also, the amount of jalapeno was perfect for me. It added flavor, but the salsa was still very mild. If you want more heat, use more jalapeno and/or keep the seeds in.

Fresh Tomatillo Salsa
From Rick Bayless, as seen on Annie's Eats
Yield: 1-1/2 cups salsa

Ingredients
8 oz. fresh tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and quartered
1 large garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and roughly chopped
1/2 to 2/3 cup cilantro leaves
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
Tortilla chips, for serving

Directions
In a food processor, pulse all ingredients into a coarse puree without over processing. Taste and add more salt if needed. Serve with chips.

Don't have a food processor? Simply mince the tomatillos, garlic, jalapeno, and cilantro by hand, then combine everything in a serving bowl.

The salsa keeps very well in the fridge. I made mine a day ahead of time and just kept it in a mason jar in the fridge until time to serve it.

Persian Carrot and Apple Salad

In continuing the Persian theme, here is a far simpler recipe than the jeweled rice. It consists of just one veggie, one fruit, one kind of nut, and a simple dressing. The recipe is pretty self-explanatory, so let me share a few pictures and a rundown of our full menu from House Church Persian Night a few weeks ago!

Pardon the quality of the pictures. My living/dining room does not have awesome photography-worthy lighting after the sun goes down.

Here's what we ate, starting with the platter of naan next to the cute little boy in the second picture, and moving clockwise around the table:

• Homemade Naan with Ghee
• Sabzi Khordan (an herb and cheese plate; this one had feta, walnuts, radishes, and fresh cilantro and mint)
• Bademjan (a beef and eggplant stew, served over brown rice)
• Iranian Chicken with Turmeric, Saffron, and Lemon Juice
• Jeweled Rice
• Homemade Hummus
• Carrot and Apple Salad (recipe below)
• More Naan
• Persian Salad Shiraz (a tomato/cucumber salad)
• Not pictured: Doogh (a beverage made with yogurt, club soda, and mint) and chocolate birthday cake

If your appetite is sufficiently whetted and your interest sufficiently piqued, and you now find yourself wanting to make some Persian food yourself, I'd recommend exploring this site. Since I'm far from an expert, I can't speak to how authentic the recipes are. But there's a nice variety of types of dishes and beverages. And most of the recipes have a picture, which is especially nice when dealing with unfamiliar recipe names!

Persian Carrot and Apple Salad
Slightly adapted from Food.com
Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients
1/2 cup slivered or chopped almonds, toasted
1 lb. carrots, peeled (4-5 medium to large carrots)
1 large granny smith apples, peeled
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. sugar.

Directions
Toast the almonds and set them aside to cool. Grate the carrots and apples. I did it by hand with a cheese grater. If you have a food processor with a grating/shredding blade, that would be most handy! You could also probably get away with finely chopping them with a regular food processor blade.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and toss to coat well. Refrigerate for an hour or more to let flavors marry. Toss again before serving.

Notes
My assembled salad sat in the fridge for 3-4 hours, and it was great (as were leftovers a couple days later). I was worried that the almonds would lose their crunch, but they were fine. Softer after a few days, but just fine the day of.

Persian Jeweled Rice

Let’s go to Persia today! Or let’s save some money on airfare and instead make some Persian food!

When I was in Atlanta a few weeks ago for work, one of my traveling buddies found a Persian (Iranian) restaurant for us to visit. Boy, am I glad he did because it was good! We had a goat cheese appetizer with pistachio relish, split a lamb kabob entrée with a side of jeweled rice, and for dessert he got baklava with pistachio ice cream while I got cardamom cake (think strawberry short cake, but the cake part is flavored with cardamom, and it's garnished with fresh tarragon). They also brought out fresh naan throughout the meal, and an herb and cheese plate at the beginning (it had fresh mint and tarragon, a cube of really good feta, walnuts, radishes, and olives). If you’re in Atlanta or are planning to visit, I highly recommend Rumi’s Kitchen. Such good food, excellent service, and decently priced for the quality and quantity you get. For all that food, our total bill (with tip) was $61.

Fast forward a couple weeks, and house church friends start asking me how the trip to Atlanta was and what yummy things I ate while there. Of course I went on and on about Rumi’s, and both friends’ response was something along the lines of, “Let’s do Persian food for house church soon.” So we had a Persian feast this past Friday! Since Persian/Iranian food is less familiar to most West Texans (and probably most white U.S. Americans), I was a little worried that a few of us would get really into the adventure while the rest of the group would be skeptical of the flavors and/or the complicated recipes. But everyone was such a good sport and cranked out a truly amazing feast! As one friend said to me Friday night, “You set the bar really high with this Persian menu, and we jumped right over that bar.” Since this post is long, I'll wait until my next post to share our menu, pictures, and another recipe.

At least in my mind, Persian cuisine is most similar to Middle Eastern food, but it’s also pretty distinct. Thanks to its geographic location as well as its history, Iranian cuisine has integrated a variety of other food traditions into its own cuisine—including Turkish, Central Asian, Russian, and more. For a quick primer, check out this article on the 10 Essential Iranian Dishes.

For our house church feast, I wanted to come as close as possible to recreating the rice dish I'd had at Rumi’s. It had orange zest, pomegranate arils, and slivered almonds. I think it also had cranberries. And it had some other grated fruit that I suspected was fresh apricot. They also provided ground sumac for us to sprinkle over the top. From the 10 Essential Iranian Dishes article, I determined that “jeweled rice recipe” was what needed to form the foundation of my Google searches.

Jeweled rice comes in many different forms. But most of the recipes I found had some dried and/or fresh fruit, some toasted nuts, spices, and of course rice. Some also had fresh herbs on top. Some were vastly more complex than others. Some were yellow like this one, others were white like I had at Rumi’s. I settled on this recipe but also adapted it. This dish is pretty involved and time-consuming, as there are lots of elements to prepare separately before bringing the whole dish together. That was fun for me because it gave me the chance to explore some new techniques and flavor combinations. It also meant using a lot of bowls, pans, and counter space, especially since I was making a double batch.

That said, you will need some counter space or nearby table where you can spread out. Almost every step of the recipe concludes with “set aside.” You’ll also need a fine-mesh strainer for rinsing and draining the rice. Other than that, all tools and equipment are pretty basic. In the recipe below, I split it into two phases: Phase A is prepping and cooking all the components, and part or all of it can be done a day or two in advance. Phase B is where you put everything together.

I forgot to let my fruit mixture and rice come to room temp before layering everything in the pot . . . so after it simmered for 35 minutes it was still cold. Oops. If that happens to you, no worries! I scooped out the top layer of rice and about half the fruit and microwaved it, then turned the burner up to about medium in order to better toast the bottom layer of rice. When the microwaved portion was warmed up, I added it back into the pot and put the lid back on so it would finish warming through. And you know what? It turned out just fine. So be of good cheer. This dish is complex and has some unfamiliar techniques--and if this is your first foray into Persian cooking like it was mine, there’s a good chance everything will not go perfectly. Just embrace it, improvise, and you’ll be good.

A few random notes: I doubled the quantities listed below, and it filled my 4-quart Pyrex bowl. For house church I left out the onion due to a friend’s onion intolerance; it was really good without the onion, but I bet it’d also be really good with, so I’ve kept the onion in the recipe. If you wanted to add some greenery to this, fresh tarragon would be phenomenal, and fresh mint would also be good. See also my notes at the end of the recipe.

Persian Jeweled Rice

Adapted from The Gutsy Gourmet

Yield: 4-6 servings for a regular meal; plenty more servings for a potluck

Ingredients

1/2 cup slivered almonds

2 cups basmati rice

1/4 cup dried apricots

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup sugar

2 medium carrots

Peel from one orange (cut into matchsticks—not zested on a microplane)

2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 Tbsp. + 3 Tbsp. olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1/4 tsp. ground cardamom

1/4 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. ground turmeric + about 1/8 tsp. in a later step

Kosher salt, to taste

1/4 cup pomegranate arils (seeds)

Phase A: Preparing and cooking the various components. All of Phase A can be done the day before. That’s what I did.

1.  Heat a dry skillet over medium to medium-low heat. Spread almonds evenly in the skillet and toast, shaking/stirring periodically, until toasted and fragrant. Remove to a plate; set aside and allow to cool. If using two kinds of nuts, toast each kind separately since almonds take longer to toast than pistachios.

2.  Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Using a fine mesh strainer, rinse the rice grains under cold water until the water turns clear. Add the rice to the boiling water, and cook for just 6-7 minutes, until the grains have lengthened but are still firm. Drain the rice and rinse well under cold water. Drain well. Spread rice on a rimmed baking sheet; set aside and allow to cool. (I think spreading it out like this also helps the rice dry out a little so the final dish isn’t too wet and mushy.)

3.  Rinse and peel the carrots. Then either grate them using a cheese grater or cut them into 1-inch matchsticks. Use a vegetable peeler or paring knife to remove the outer orange layer of the orange peel, trying to get as little of the white pith as possible (see notes below). Thinly slice each piece of orange peel to make mini matchsticks. In a saucepan, bring sugar and 1 cup of water to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Add the carrots and orange zest, reduce heat, and simmer for 10-20 minutes, until carrots are tender (more time if carrots are cut into matchsticks, less time if they’re grated). Drain and set aside. (Are you sensing a theme here?)

4.  Slice/julienne dried apricots into matchsticks. Warm some water in a small bowl or 2- to 4-cup measuring cup. Add the dried apricots and cranberries to the hot water. Let soak for 10 minutes. Drain and set aside.*

5.  Heat butter and 1 Tbsp. of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion, season with salt, and cook, stirring often, for 8-10 minutes, or until onion is beginning to brown. Add cardamom, cumin, and turmeric. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low. Add reserved cranberries and apricots. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring often. Stir in the reserved carrot mixture. Season to taste with salt. If proceeding immediately to Phase B, stir in the toasted nuts as well.

If saving Phase B for another day, transfer onion-carrot mixture into a container and store in the fridge until ready to use; then stir in the nuts before proceeding to Phase B. Transfer rice into another container and store in the fridge. Before proceeding to Phase B, be sure to pull everything out of the fridge at least 30-60 minutes ahead of time to let them come up to room temperature. Or warm it slightly in the microwave.

Phase 2: Putting everything together and, most importantly, serving!

6.  Get out a large heavy-bottomed pot with a tight-fitting lid. Get a clean lightweight kitchen towel and lay it over the opening of the pot. Then put the lid on and fold the towel up over the top of the lid, securing with rubber band, clothespin, file clip, or whatever you have on hand. The goal is to have the towel in place (I guess to absorb extra moisture from the rice?) while keeping it from catching on fire from the burner. Set the cloth-wrapped lid aside.

7.  In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine 1/4 cup warm water with a sprinkling of turmeric (maybe 1/8 tsp.?).

8.  In the large heavy-bottomed pot, heat remaining 3 Tbsp. oil over medium heat. Add half of the rice and spread evenly; add the fruit mixture and spread evenly; add the rest of the rice and spread evenly. Use the end of a wooden spoon, poke 5-6 holes all the way through to the bottom of the pot (to help release steam and help the rice cook evenly). Drizzle turmeric water over the top.

9.  Put toweled lid onto pot. Cook 5-8 minutes, until pot begins to steam. Reduce heat to very low and cook, without stirring or touching, until rice is tender and bottom layer is browned and crispy, about 30-40 minutes. (I’m not entirely sure how you’re supposed to know when the bottom is crispy without messing with the rice. I just trusted the timer, went for about 35 minutes, and hoped for the best.)

10.  Spoon rice into a large serving bowl, mixing it up as you go in order to distribute the fruit and turmeric color throughout the rice. Use a spoon to scrape up the layer of crispy rice on the bottom; break into pieces if it doesn’t do that on its own; spread them around on the top of the rice (or serve them in a small bowl on the side). Apparently the crispy rice is a big deal in Persian cuisine. The Gutsy Gourmet even called it a “Persian delicacy!” Sprinkle pomegranate arils over the top just before serving.

11.  Now, dish yourself up a good-sized helping, sit down with some friends and let your feet rest, and enjoy the fruits of your hard labor!

Notes

• I adapted some of the ingredients based on what I like and what I remembered from the rice I ate at Rumi's. But in case you like any of the things I left out, here are some possible reverse substitutions: Instead of 1/2 cup almonds, use 1/4 cup almonds + 1/4 cup pistachios or pine nuts. Instead of 3/4 cup cranberries, use 1/2 cup cranberries + 1/4 cup chopped dates. Instead of dried apricots, use raisins.
• *Let's talk about saffron. This recipe called for saffron, but that's expensive so I opted out of that. There's not a real good flavor substitute for saffron, but turmeric will give you the same color. You just have to be careful with turmeric, because if you use too much it can give an off taste to your food. If you want to use saffron: In step 4, soak 1/4 tsp. saffron threads in a small bowl with 1/4 cup water; set aside. In step 5, add 1 Tbsp. of the saffron water when you add the cardamom, cumin, and turmeric to the fruit mixture. Skip step 7. In step 8, drizzle remaining saffron water over rice in lieu of the turmeric water.
• For the orange peel, I found it easier to peel off narrow pieces and use a gentle hand to the peeler/knife gets a pretty shallow cut. But since oranges are round and peeler blades are straight, you’ll still get some pith. To remove some excess, put orange zest strips pith-side up on a cutting board, then use a utility knife to scrape off some of the excess pith.